The Perfect Storm Is Definitely Here This Time

On his Fox News show tonight, Glenn Beck discussed popular uprisings in the Middle East and union protests in the United States (two sides of the same global revolution, in Beck's mind) and declared that the "perfect storm" he's been warning us about for years is "finally here":

BECK: Are you willing to roll the dice on an entire region flipping to some blind, unnamed democracy with an unknown outcome? You willing to? Because that's what's happening. And every single person in the media is responsible for not informing you what this means. You are about to pay through the nose. This will collapse the economy. The truth is our economy cannot take this kind of pressure.

This is what we've been discussing right here on my old TV show and my old radio show for a long, long time. It's called the perfect storm. And I can't honestly believe that we're finally here.

Why does that sound so familiar? Oh, right:

November 30, 2010: "The storm is here."

BECK: I have told you for the last, probably, five years, that a perfect storm was brewing. Then we started having the meltdown on Wall Street and TARP started to happen. I told you that the storm was getting stronger and coming closer. When the stimulus happened and Obama was elected, I told you that the perfect storm was forming and it was now on shore.

I have news for you. I have to update our weather conditions. The storm is here.

November 15, 2010: "This is the perfect storm I told you about five years ago. This is it."

BECK: I have to tell you, if you look at the communists, at the anarchists in Phoenix, Arizona at the national socialist - the Nazis that were in the streets. We're not dealing with - This is the perfect storm I told you about five years ago. This is it. All of the enemies of the republic are uniting. Not in working together, but in cause: Destroy the United States of America, cause a massive disruption because anarchy allows people to then have their leaders rise up and say I will solve your problem, and it's a strongman that rises up on that.

August 12, 2010: "It's here."

BECK: Your economic picture is not good. Do you remember, if you've been a long time listener of this program, I told you five years ago, perfect storm. And when it comes on shore, we've never fought anything like it. We fought the Civil War and everything else. We've never fought anything like the perfect storm that is coming to shore.

I told you two years ago the tip of it is now starting to enter our space. It's here. And it is about to rock our world. The first part is financial.

March 25, 2010: I said "a perfect storm would come. It's here."

BECK: It is more important than ever now to get in touch with our core principles that we have in each of us. I'm telling you the way to solve this is with faith, hope and charity.

We're under attack unlike anything ever before from multiple fronts. I've talked about almost -- gosh, probably eight years now. A perfect storm would come. It's here. The left is trying to paint people as crazy, dangerous and violent. [From Nexis]

April 28, 2009: "Perfect storm ... just came onshore."

BECK: Now, let me go back to the story that, you know, the one that everybody is forgetting about and that one is -- Specter, you know, broke some political news today -- swine flu. It is spreading and not stopping. There are now more than 60 confirmed cases here in the U.S. Carnival Cruise Lines says it has cancelled three Mexico stops for its cruise ships due to the swine flu.

[...]

BECK: But we are -- and I have been describing this for several years: a perfect storm. I said back in September, there is a perfect storm that has come onshore. I've been talking about it for years, and it just came onshore. This is part of it. It is -- while it's not connected, it is all connected on how much can we weather as a nation, as an economy, as a planet -- the way we have set it up. [From Nexis]

July 15, 2008: "We're in the perfect storm."

BECK: Here`s what you need to know tonight, America. Our weak dollar is getting weaker, and it is driving up commodity prices, like corn, natural gas, electricity, oil, food. Have you bought cornflakes lately? I`ve been saying this for months: when oil goes up, so does the price of everything else that you buy. And, as importantly, as the dollar goes down, oil goes up even more.

To sum it all up, we`re in the perfect storm. There are a lot of steps along the way, but America`s credit rating with China or whoever else we`re borrowing money from, and the value of our dollar in Bangladesh has a direct effect on what you pay for a hamburger and gasoline and how long you keep your job. [From Nexis]

June 30, 2008: "The storm is finally coming ashore."

BECK: Tonight, I`m back. And I`ve been predicting the perfect storm for months. But now with oil prices soaring and stocks plummeting, the storm is finally coming ashore. [From Nexis]